The Tigers had this one in hand for a moment, then watched it slip into a full-blown collapse.
A Dillon Dingler throwing error during a rundown cracked the game open, and the Minnesota Twins rolled from there, hammering Detroit 15-2 on Tuesday, Sept. 1, at Target Field. What had been a close contest turned into a mess fast, with Royce Lewis and Ryan Jeffers each launching three-run homers as the Twins piled up 10 runs in the sixth inning.
Troy Melton took the loss after allowing seven runs, five earned, over 5 1/3 innings.
Detroit’s slide keeps getting uglier by the day. The Tigers have now dropped 14 of their last 17 games dating back to Aug.
- They’ve also lost seven straight to Minnesota dating back to last season, their longest skid in Minneapolis since an eight-game run from Sept. 7, 2020, to July 26, 2021.
On top of that, this is their sixth straight series loss, the club’s longest winless series stretch since an eight-series drought from May 4-31.
Melton gave the Tigers a decent start after surrendering a first-inning homer to Kody Clemens. He settled in, kept his pitch count manageable and carried a 1-1 game into the fifth while allowing just two hits.
But then the inning unraveled. He walked Trevor Larnach, Royce Lewis followed with a ball over Riley Greene’s head, and Minnesota had runners on second and third with nobody out.
Detroit brought the infield in, and Jalen Culpepper hit a ball at rookie shortstop John Peck, who handled it cleanly for the first out. Then Walker Jenkins grounded to Peck, who threw home to start a rundown.
That should have limited the damage. Instead, Dingler threw over third base, and two runs scored on the error.
Luke Keaschall then lined a ball past a diving Hao-Yu Lee for another run, and the Twins suddenly led 4-1.
From there, the game kept spiraling.
Minnesota added five earned runs off Kyle Finnegan and two more off Beau Briske over 1 1/3 innings. By the time the sixth inning ended, the score had turned from manageable to brutal.
That made what happened to Melton all the more striking. He had entered Tuesday with a 2.07 ERA (27 ER/117.2 IP) across his first 20 major league starts dating to July 2025, the lowest mark by any big-league pitcher in their first 20 starts in more than 40 years, since Joe Hesketh posted a 1.99 ERA in his first 20 career starts with Montreal from 1984-85. Melton was also one of only eight pitchers in the last 100 years to post a 2.07 ERA or lower in his first 20 major league starts, with a minimum of 115.0 innings pitched.
Detroit actually opened the game well. Kevin McGonigle singled up the middle, Gleyber Torres followed with a hit to right, Dingler drilled a ball to deep center to move McGonigle to third, and Riley Greene, back from the injured list, brought him home with a groundout to first.
That was it for the Tigers until Hao-Yu Lee’s RBI double in the eighth.
Now Detroit has one more shot to avoid the sweep. Drew Anderson, 4-5 with a 3.82 ERA, will start Wednesday for the Tigers, and right-hander Andrew Morris, 4-7 with a 3.82 ERA, will go for Minnesota.
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